Part 11 (1/2)

Edward replied he thought it went very well, except that he did not like the reference to ex-President Hayes

”What reference? What did I say?”

Edward repeated it

”Did I say that?” he asked Edward looked at him Mr Beecher's face was tense After a few enerally the ith exteerous The best impromptu speeches and remarks are the carefully prepared kind,” he added

Edward told hiretted the reference because he knew that General Hayes would read it in the New York papers, and he would be nonplussed to understand it, considering the cordial relations which existed between the two men Mr Beecher knew of Edward's relations with the ex-President, and they had often talked of hi more was said of the incident When the Beecher home was reached Mr Beecher said: ”Just coht to his desk, and wrote and wrote It seemed as if he would never stop

At last he handed Edward an eight-page letter, closely written, addressed to General Hayes

”Read that, and et there just as quickly as the New York papers will”

It was a superbly fine letter,--one of those letters which only Henry Ward Beecher could write in his tenderest moods And the reply which came from Fremont, Ohio, was no less fine!

CHAPTER IX

THE FIRST ”WOMAN'S PAGE,” ”LITERARY LEAVES,” AND ENTERING SCRIBNER'S

Edward had been in the erapher for two years when Mr Cary sent for hi house of Charles Scribner's Sons, if he wanted to er opportunities possible in a house of the importance of the Scribners, and he immediately placed himself in communication with Mr Charles Scribner, with the result that in January, 1884, he entered the erapher to the two ame, literary adviser to the house He was to receive a salary of eighteen dollars and thirty-three cents per week, which was then considered a fair wage for stenographic work The typewriter had at that ti-hand Oncehad secured for hie He had already done a prodigious amount of work for his years He was always busy Every sparehis literary letter, to the steady acquireraph letters in which he still persisted, or to helping Mr Beecher in his literary work The Plymouth pastor was particularly pleased with Edward's successful exploitation of his pen work; and he afterrote: ”Bok is the only et y the boy unquestionably possessed, but one need only think back even thus far in his life to see the continuous good fortune which had followed him in the friendshi+ps he had made, and in the men hom his life, at its most formative period, had co Bok with an ever-willingness to work and a certain quality of initiative, the influences which played upon him must also be taken into account

Take, for example, the peculiarly fortuitous circu house As stenographer to the two ht into touch with the leading authors of the day, their works as they were discussed in the correspondence dictated to him, and the authors' teriven as close an insight as it was possible for a young e publishi+ng houses in the United States, with a list peculiarly noted for the distinction of its authors and the broad scope of its books

The Scribners had the fore houses; its educational list was exceptionally strong; itswriters of the day; its general list was particularly noteworthy; and its foreign departht out in Great Britain and Europe, was an outstanding feature of the business The correspondence dictated to Bok covered, naturally, all these fields, and a more remarkable opportunity for self-education was never offered a stenographer

Mr Burlingaularly keen literary appreciation, and was accepted as one of the best judges of good fiction Bok entered the Scribner e the best short stories published within a decade for a set of books to be called ”Short Stories by American Authors” The correspondence for this series was dictated to Bok, and he decided to read after Mr Burlingaet an idea of the best fiction of the day So whenever his chief wrote to an author asking for permission to include his story in the proposed series, Bok immediately hunted up the story and read it

Later, when the house decided to start _Scribner's Magazine_, and Mr

Burlingame was selected to be its editor, all the prelih his employers, and he received a first-hand education in the setting up of the azine All this he eagerly absorbed

He was again fortunate in that his desk was placed in the advertising departer, an old-tione to school, Frank N

Doubleday, to-day the senior partner of Doubleday, Page and Coh his theatre prograazine_ experience, and here was presented a chance to learn the art at first hand and according to the best traditions So, whenever his stenographic work per the advertisements of the books of the house

Mr Doubleday was just reviving the publication of a house-organ called _The Book Buyer_, and, given a chance to help in this, Bok felt he was getting back into the periodical field, especially since, under Mr

Doubleday's guidance, the little azine of very respectable size and generally bookish contents

The house also issued another periodical, _The Presbyterian Review_, a quarterly under the editorshi+p of a board of professors connected with the Princeton and Union Theological Seazine was not co,” and as the price of a single copy was eighty cents, and the advertisements it could reasonably expect were necessarily limited in number, the periodical was rather difficult to move Thus the whole situation at the Scribners' was adapted to give Edward an all-round training in the publishi+ng business It was an exceptional opportunity

He worked early and late An increase in his salary soon told hi his eazine_ appeared, and a little later Mr Doubleday was delegated to take charge of the business end of it, Bok hi depart details of the two periodicals on his hands

He suddenly found hirapher himself Evidently his apprentice days were over He had, in addition, the charge of sending all the editorial copies of the new books to the press for review, and of keeping a record of those reviewsThis naturally brought to his desk the authors of the house ished to see how the press received their works